[3.5] Living Saint: Tanky Aurabot - Leaguestarter / Endgame viable

Forget the power of loot-filter and poe.trade, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned.
Forget the promise of Atlas-progress and Challenge League Rewards, for in the grim dark month's ahead there is only the grind.
There is no peace amongst the price-fixer, only an eternity of 820-spamming and carnage and the laughter of Chris Wilson.

Greetings Sisters of Battle!
I have taken the liberty of adapting this Guide from my PartyJesus Aurabot,
now that the Ascendant basically stole my Identity (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻.
This Guide is also filled with Warhammer 40k Meme's, as it is inspired by the Living Saints of the Adeptus Sororitas.

To be conform with the Codex Astartes the Guide is split up into the following "Chapters":

Pros & Cons

Pros:
- a great Leaguestarter if you play with your friends
- can start with minimal Investment and support all Endgame
- purges the Atlas from Xenos for the Glory of the Emperor
- doesn't give a damn about physical Damage
- tanky
- righthanded

Cons:
- Playstyle is not for everyone (but you already knew that)
- vulnerable to Elemental Damage at the start of mapping
- not fun to level solo as this build
- lefthanded
- Charakter Portrait

Guardian vs. Necro vs. NeGua-ScionAurabot:
Here we have a little Rundown on the Features one can expect.
The Values are for 140% inc. Auraeffect on 6 Auras and 90% inc. Auraeffect on the other six.
All Buffs affect Allies (Partymembers and Minions)

The Guardian:
Beeing burried in high quality Defense your Party can charge through even the most suicidal maps with gay abandon. All the while you dont die during Bosses, which means the Party doesnt wipe either.
This makes for a more relaxed Gameplay all in all.
Guardian has the option of scaling Up his Manapool and get more ES that way, making his Item choices a tad cheaper.
The Nodes added in 3.4 allow you to Soloplay using Herald of Purity.

The Ascendant:
The Scion starts slower then the other classes, as you will need Merciless Lab to see a difference. Has a lot of Passive Points to spent and a lot of Inc. Energyshield - making it very important that you get flat ES on gear wherever you can. People get addicted to your "extra Haste".
Your Party meanwhile will benefit from the best aspects of Necromancer and Guardian while you yourself retain the reduced Curse Effect and Spot-Regeneratin from Guardian & now also have access to Spirit Offering.

The Champion:
Champion was a very niche option back in the Days of Harbinger-League.
With the changes in 3.5 it very much seems to be back at the table.
If you Support a build that needs flat Damage you can provide that.
The Debuffs to Enemies you taunted are amazing and probably rival the Damage from Ascendant. Has very strong options to boost physical centric builds, can probably solo level.

A fine selection of Skillgems to fancy your taste

Skillgems that aren't Auras, but really are:
- Smite:
Aura-Tag - this means the Aura-Area and Effekt Nodes from the Passivtree will increase the Aura "triggered" by your Melee hit. A lvl 20 Smite grants Damage equivalent to a Lvl 18.5 Wrath Aura.
Stack with Wrath fully.
Is it overpowered? Let me explain further...
So unlike the Wrath-Aura Smite's Aura also grants Chance to shock with 19%.
It grants Lightning Damage. So UNLIKE Wrath this flat damage is added to Spells.
BUT THERE IS STILL MORE.
The Flat Damage added to Spells will then be increased by the Wrath-Auras 20% more Spell Lightning Damage. I will just call this Wrath-Double Dipping.

- Banners:
A little breakdown here since stuff is complicated:Warbanner grants Accuracy Rating to Allies and increases "Physical Damage taken" on enemies.
(The same as Vulnerability Curse) but will (probably) not suffer from Boss reduced Curse Effect.
Works for physical Damage Spells such as Bladevortex and Ethereal Knifes.

Both Banners are Auras.
They are Auras while you have them reserved and become Spells that grant Auras (see: Rejuvenation Totem) once you planted them.

The effect of the Banners are therefor subject to your increased Aura Effect and AoE. You can support Banners with Generosity as all Auras, but they will not effect you. NOT even when planted.The Banners also have a very "loose" wording.
It is currently not known if Generosity will increase the Debuff on Enemies or the Effect you receive from planting the Banner.

Theory about Banners - nothing known yet

Putting Banners into Victario's Influence gives them around +149% Aura Effekt.
That is without stages / planting them we reach:

Dreadbanner:
Attacks have 49% chance to Impale
Impale has 47% Effekt
Enemys have 52% LESS Accuracy

So the less Accuracy it seems works fully on Bosses, as this is not a Curse.
And on normal Enemys with Enfeeble we should reach over 100% less Accuracy.
Whatever that means.

Please be aware that both thse Banners affekt only the physical Damage the Enemy receives - meaning that Full Convertion Builds will not feel their impact.

The physical Damage taken from Warbanner works on the Enemy and therefor supports Spells aswell.

The Impale from Dreadbanner scales exclusivly from unmitigated physical damage the Enemy receives.
Crunching the numbers on 50% impale chance and 50% Impale Effekt (rounded) we provide - that should come to an average of 37,7% more physical Attack Damage on the enemy - provided the Attacker will always hit.

With ever Hit consuming 1 out of 5 Impales but only creating 0,5 Impales there should be an average on 2,5 Impales allways aktive on the Enemy - every Impale dealing 15% of the hit...

In conclusion:
YOU will want to have a Banner aktive because it's an Aura and it wil therefor give the relevant Aurabonus from our Ascendancy - physical DMG reduction, Attack/Castspeed/(Fossil weapon).With 10% reservation they are also very cheap.

If you Support a physical Spellcaster -> Warbanner
If you Support Attackbuilds that arent hitcapped -> Warbanner
If you Support Attackbuilds that are hitcapped -> Dread
Anything Else -> Dread ( for the less Accuracy on Enemys)

- Rejuvenation Totem:
This is a Spell, that creates a Totem, that casts Rejuvenation Aura.
The Aura is considered "yours" and will be subject to increased Aure Effect and AoE. GENEROUSITY does not work as this Aura is not cast by you.

All the Skillgems mentioned above will be considered "your" Aura and will count for the physical dmg reduction / attack & castspeed Boni from Necromancer and Guardian.

- Vigilant Strike: andThe Vigil will help you grant a massive 38sec. Fortify to Allies and yourself. Has a huge AoE and benefits from Quality on the Skillgem.Interaction with Dreadbanner's increased Fortify Effect are yet unknown but perhaps OP.

- Summon Holy Relic
Used this in all of 3.4; The Relic does almost never die and deals suprisingly noticable damage with your Auras. The Regeneration it gives you is hard to pin down but I found it really noticable even in T15+ Maps.
Procs come with your Attacks.

As this Build is specifically made to start a League and level with Friends.

The Skilltree progression outlines the basic Progression I would follow. Keep in mind, that depending on your personal Situation you should adapt it.Feel that Physical Damage is a Problem ~lvl 40? Maybe consider rushing Iron Reflexes. Although in generell it can be said that Aura-Effect is simply your best investment, as it tends to all your needs, aswell as the Party's.

Ascendancy Points:2 Points: Since we cant reach anything significant I suggest getting the 2 Stat Notables.4 Points: Now its either Guardian or Necromancer.
While Necromancer adds valuable DPS and some Defense with Offerings, I think I would prefer Guardian since it gives the Spot-regeneration and phys. Damage reduction (right bevor Kitava), also while sharing charges.6 Points: claim the other Soul8 Points: Enable the Guardian Location for some nice Defense and Lifereg.

Here are a few Items you might consider:
Lvl 04 - The Vigil socket Vigilant Strike and grant your Allies up to 26s Fortify.
Lvl 12 - Victario's Flight Use while leveling, later your Animate Guardian can wear 'em.
Lvl 16 - Shaper's Seed Very nice during Leveling and in Labyrinth.
Lvl 17 - Aurumvorax fixes your Resist's till Endgame.
Lvl 17 - Solaris Lorica get one around Lvl 31. Once you ascended reserve an Aura with Bloodmagic Supportgem and Beef up your Allies with tons of Armour. Be prepared to skill Zeloth's Oath here and run Disciplin. Your ES is now your efficient healthpool and you need to keep your Resistances maxed!
Lvl 52 - Victario's Influence as soon as you can, aquire a decent rolled one and dress up.Fix your Chaos Resistance BEFOR!. Rearange your reservations in such a ways, that you do not reserve more then ~50% HP. If need be sacrifice the least popular Dmg Aura.
Lvl 68 - Prism Guardian higher Level and higher priority then Alpha's Howl. Switch Haste, Grace and Determination in.
Lvl 64 - Alpha's Howl Enables one additional Aura, have Discipline and Vitality here.
In the long run you want one that has the Mana-reduction Enchant for one of your Shield's Auras.

Aura Setup
For the Vaal-Aura I recommend using only one as they share souls. In my case I prefer Vaal Grace, since the Duration of Vaal Haste was nerfed to be laughtably low.
Vaal Grace manages 64% Spell and Attack Evasion with very good uptime once you support it with Inc. Duration!

Customize if need be!
The Aura-Setup posted is what I plan on running in 3.2 in regards to my Friends Characters.
If you support someone who uses Elemental Equilibrium its probably better to disable a DPS Aura.

If you support mainly a Poison/Chaos Build United in Dream is certainly great. You can socket Generosity and Blood Magic into the Item to support it's skill.

Dual-cursing is possible (let's see what the Fated Windscream has in store) but expensive if you want to skill the passiv.

Skillgem links

Helmet
Purity of Fire
Purity of Ice
Purity of Lightning
Discipline

Chest Armour
Anger
Wrath
Hatred
Haste
Dreadbanner

Shield
Vitality
Determination
Grace

Weapon
Animate Guardian
Minion Life
Stone Golem

4-Link
Ball Lightning
Curse on Hit
Enfeeble
TemporalChains

4-Link
Vigilant Strike
Cast when Damage taken - might be you prefer to selfcast this
Spirit Offering
Phase Run - or Immortal Call

Flasks:
3.5 changed the Flask Max-Resist Flasks to instead give "20% reduced <Element> Damage taken. They are still an option.
For Uber-Elder I would suggest maxing againt cold Damage anyway you can.
If you can balance your "uncapped resists" get The Wise Oak.

you mentioned in an earlier comment you are running purities in alpha's howl now instead of chest. how did you make this gem switcheroo? could you update the gem setup page or post it here? :) thanks, enjoying the build so far (not even lvl 60 yet)
ty in advance

From what I understand, the idea behind your build is that because you use victarios, you give some amazing auras and have to buff your health just incase you get hit with a nasty chaos hit right?

Where as, going blood magic, you go shavs and thus cant run victarios.

What is your opinion on blood magic/shavs vs victarios?

So if you use Shavronne's you lose out on max 15-25% Aura Effect. Why is that important?
Well with Victario's I reach 240%, this combines with lvl 23 Purity means +12% max Resist.
You cant reach that with Shavronne's. Than on the other hand you need a +1 vaaled Bodyarmour + lvl21 Gems, so its expensive anyways.

You could also try Esh's Visage.
This will unfortunatly hinder you somewhat, since you lose the reduced reservation from Prism Guardian (and the +2 Level). Keep in Mind that having 0/0 Mana does count as you having full Mana, but you cant reserve below 36% Life and also you probably want to reduce your manacosts for skills to Zero, since casting with life would mean you maybe drop below and loose the Chaos-protection. However it gives you way more room with Items, since Chaos resist is not as high in demand.

If you wanna go Blood Magic - here's what I would do:
1) Use Shav's ( but you will need a 5L or 6L, since you now have to socket Generosity Support - and loose another 10% Effect).
2) Bye Skyforth You dont profit from Lifereg anymore, so you cant use Rejuvenation Totem, Enduring Cry, Vitality. You use Spirit Offering and invest into faster start of Energy Shield Recharge!
3) Get a Watcher's Eye with 40% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge and skill the passive Essence Surge.

But all in all you see where this is going:
You get 1-3 extra Auras, but lose up to 25% Auraeffect.
You'll need a 5L or 6L Shav's, probably Skyforth and maybe want a Shavronne's Revelation (Offleague).
Standing in the front and taking hit's is no longer safe, since you lose life regeneration.

So it's gonna be way more expensive, but you can have more Auras. If these Auras have an impact on the Builds you are supporting depends...

Buildoptions, Totems and Shenanigans

The Vigil + Vigilant Strike:
Dont know why I dont see this in more Support Builds but this combination grants AoE Fortify for You, your Partymembers and Minions, for up to 26 Seconds and it costs you a Jewel Socket.
it is by far the biggest Defensiv Boost I can imagin and YOU WANT IT!

Harmony of Purpose + CoH + Elemental Equilibrium
The newly buffed Harmony of Purpos is a dream come true and due to it's on-hit mechanic easily combinable with a Curse on Hit setup and Dual-Curses. Personal preferences aside I would recommend you to always use Enfeeble
As to the Spell: Ball-Lightning and Firestorm both work excellent due to them hitting very often.
Im afraid there is no good choice for cold based spells.

Animate Guardian
A popular Choice to gain 3 Auras more and with the recent changes to Minion Life Support and my Auras I found him to be quite survivable.
See that you can get the Gem to lvl 21, Quality doesn't matter.Remember: if the Guardian dies, the Items are lost, and switch him off in Labyrinth, Halls of Grandmasters and probably Uber-Atziri.
Here are the usual Itemchoices:
- Leer Cast
- Dying Breath
- Victario's Flight
- Kingmaker expensive at Leaguestart, fucks with Cullers
- Lightning Coil because of phys-convertion
- Cloak of Flame because of phys-convertion
- Zahndethus' CassockCreates Consecrated Ground + Chaos Resist
- Ambu's Charge cheap Regeneration
- Death's Oath Fashion Choice
- Dyadus Support Burn-Builds, this Weapon needs to be in the Offhand.
- Southbound for the inc. Life
Otherwise focus on Chaos-Resist and Life on the Gloves and Boots.

Rejuvenation Totem
This Skillgem has the "Aura" Tag and will scale with your Aura Effect and Area Nodes.
It provides great upkeep during early Bossfights and is noticeable even in Lategame.

Decoy Totem
Always a solid choice. Tanky like a Fortress with your Auras.

Scorching Ray + Storm Barrier Support + CwC Another Way to Support. Reduce Fire Resist and apply a curse while Storm Barrier beefs you up. Only allows for one Curse and doesnt Work with Harmony of Purpose since Scorching Ray does not hit.

Ancient Waystones + Reduced Mana Support + Aura-Totem
This combination (the Supportgem needs to be max Quality) reduces the Manacost of the Spelltotem to Zero. Keep in Mind that a Spelltotem will only ever cast one Aura, so linking multiple Auras has no effect. Also Spelltotems can't be supportet with Generosity!

Vacuum Warchief with Empire's Grasp
Sacrificing heavily on your Gloves-Slot this Setup was fun a few leagues back and was used by Champion-Supports until they came out of fashion! Might need further investment into the Fending Notable to make it great.
Warchief Totem + Faster Attacks + Inc. Area of Effect + Knockback/Blind Support.

Conversion Trap
Your Friends will be anoyed but it is super-fun "stealing" some Aura-Rares or Invincibility-Totems.

Dominating Blow
In regards to the upcoming Beastiary-League probably better. Still anoys your friends.
You will need Faster Attacks with this one, to keep the Debuff on the Monster as it dies - IF you can reach said monster bevor your Party deletes them.

also for the guardian ascendancy, about sharing charges. im hearing the person who is the conduit must be the one to generate the charges? so should we also be using doedres elixir?

As far as I know, what you've said is 100% accurate. In order to "Share charges" between party members, the person with Share Conduit (aka Guardian Ascendency) has to be the same person who generates the charge in the first place. So from what I can see, Deodre's elixir is probably the best option to generate charges for your group. I don't know Support too well so I'm not sure if there are any alternatives, but this definitely seems the best way to do it.

also for the guardian ascendancy, about sharing charges. im hearing the person who is the conduit must be the one to generate the charges? so should we also be using doedres elixir?

Elemental Equilibrium I pick because of my Friends. Depends on Your Party obviously, but if you run Hatred, Anger & Wrath you practically forze Elemental Damage onto your Friends - which you can support with EE.

As for how sharing Charges works:
If you skill this as a Guardian effectivly EVERYONE 2 Screens away from you has conduit.
Thats how it works. Someone gains Frenzycharges? --> You all have them.
As many Builds create their own Charges anyways, u usually dont have to do anything.
-That is how it works on Guardian, I assume it is the same for the Ascendand, since the wording is the same.

As for the survivability without Presence:
Keep your Chaos Resist max. (Chaos res.can be a cheap stat on ES Gear because of CI)
and Chaos Damage wont be a problem. Chayula gives you a lot of ES, so most likely you will feel Elemental Damage then. Especially at the start of mapping that happened to me.

From what I understand, the idea behind your build is that because you use victarios, you give some amazing auras and have to buff your health just incase you get hit with a nasty chaos hit right?

Where as, going blood magic, you go shavs and thus cant run victarios.

What is your opinion on blood magic/shavs vs victarios?

Also, POB says you are over 100% mana reserve.

Hello,

Well glad you asked that question as im sure a lot are torn between these two.
I will probably go ahead and include my answere into the Guide itself, so here goes:

So if you use Shavronne's you lose out on max 15% Aura Effect. Why is that important?
Well with Victario's I reach 240%, this combines with lvl 23 Purity means +12% max Resist.
You cant reach that with Shavronne's. Than on the other hand you need a +1 vaaled Bodyarmour + lvl21 Gems, so its expensive anyways.

You could also try .
This will unfortunatly hinder you a lot, since you lose the reduced reservation from Prism Guardian (and the +2 Level). Keep in Mind that having 0/0 Mana does count as you having full Mana, but you cant reserve below 36% Life and also you probably want to reduce your manacosts for skills to Zero, since casting with life would mean you maybe drop below and loose the Chaos-protection. So its a bad option.

If you wanna go Blood Magic - here's what I would do:
1) Use Shav's ( but you will need a 5L or 6L, since you now have to socket Generosity Support - and loose another 10% Effect).
2) Bye Skyforth You dont profit from Lifereg anymore, so you cant use Rejuvenation Totem, Enduring Cry, Vitality. You use Spirit Offering and invest into faster start of Energy Shield Recharge!
3) Get a Watcher's Eye with 40% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge and skill the passive Essence Surge.

But all in all you see where this is going:
You get 1-3 extra Auras, but lose up to 25% Auraeffect.
You'll need a 5L or 6L Shav's, probably Skyforth and maybe want a Shavronne's Revelation (Offleague).
Standing in the front and taking hit's is no longer safe, since you lose life regeneration.

So it's gonna be way more expensive, but you can have more Auras. If these Auras have an impact on the Builds you are supporting depends...

@Mana-Reservation:
Can't tell right now as im at work. Check the Mikelat-Link, its accurate.